well there's the problem right there isn't it?
I do believe we have a winnah!
Like everything else the Prez has grudgingly supported in order to do something this was originally a
Republican idea, waaay back in 2009:
You may recall that a payroll tax break or "holiday" was a Republican proposal back in 2009. Conservatives liked the idea then in lieu of a tax credit. The Weekly Standard's Matt Continetti explained the reasoning:
The payroll tax hits 60 percent of Americans, including anybody who runs a business. Cutting it would be fast, easy, and effective. Where a tax credit is complicated and invites rent-seeking, a tax cut is transparent. Last December, AEI's John H. Makin calculated that if the payroll tax were suspended for 12 to 18 months, personal discretionary income would rise by 3.5 percent. Workers would have fatter paychecks to spend. The increase in consumption would spur demand. Meanwhile, since the payroll tax also hits employers, a reduction would lower the cost of hiring additional workers. Another way to go would be not to suspend the tax, but to reduce it--permanently.
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Orin Hatch (R-Utah), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and others have proposed some form of tax payroll holiday or reduction. According to a GOP House leadership advisor, more than half the Republican House caucus has gone on record at some point supporting a reduction in, or suspension of, the payroll tax.
In 2009, the White House rebuffed the idea, preferring its grab bag of stimulus spending programs. But things change. Elections have consequences. And just as the president snared the Republicans' plan for a freeze on public employee salaries, the White House now counts the payroll tax cut among its "gets."
